Copy Entity Framework Object

Question

I have a EF4.1 class X and I want to make copy of that plus all its child records. X.Y and X.Y.Z

Now if I do the following it returns error.

The property \'X.ID\

Answer 1

Not sure if it works in 4.1, from http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/474296/Clone-an-Entity-in-Entity-Framework-4:

public static T CopyEntity(MyContext ctx, T entity, bool copyKeys = false) where T : EntityObject
{
    T clone = ctx.CreateObject();
    PropertyInfo[] pis = entity.GetType().GetProperties();

    foreach (PropertyInfo pi in pis)
    {
        EdmScalarPropertyAttribute[] attrs = (EdmScalarPropertyAttribute[])pi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EdmScalarPropertyAttribute), false);

        foreach (EdmScalarPropertyAttribute attr in attrs)
        {
            if (!copyKeys && attr.EntityKeyProperty)
                continue;

            pi.SetValue(clone, pi.GetValue(entity, null), null);
        }
    }

    return clone;
}

You can copy related entites to your cloned object now too; say you had an entity: Customer, which had the Navigation Property: Orders. You could then copy the Customer and their Orders using the above method by:

Customer newCustomer = CopyEntity(myObjectContext, myCustomer, false);

foreach(Order order in myCustomer.Orders)
{
    Order newOrder = CopyEntity(myObjectContext, order, true);
    newCustomer.Orders.Add(newOrder);
}